Categoria: News

Yesterday Liz and I made a lovely visit to the ex-landless settlement of Nossa Senhora Aparecida II in the County of São Mamede. We went duly masked, maintained strict distancing protocols and with all our discussions in the open-air. We had a lovely talk to Paulo and Dodora which took about an hour and a half. They unburdened their hearts about different issue which we counselled them about. We also discussed their desire to hold services in front of their house which we agreed to. We pray that God will bless them and use them as the only evangelical Christians in their settlement.

Brazil passed the 450,000 mark for Covid deaths yesterday. The situation is serious here with no national leadership against the pandemic. President Bolsonaro led a 40 km motorbike ride on Sunday in Rio de Janeiro without a mask. He is a terrible example or lack of it. Our Pastor Oseias at Itaporanga, who is a member of our senior leadership team and took part in our meeting on Saturday, has gone down with suspected Covid and is self-isolating at home.

Our State capital João Pessoa, where EAB/ACEV has 3 churches, is in the international news with the arrest of Italian mafia fugitive Rocco Morabito who was one of Italy’s most wanted fugitives since 1994! The “cocaine king of Milan”, as he is known, was arrested in a João Pessoa hotel together with two other foreigners.

Witnesses say that 3,000 massive shipments of timber have been illegally exported from the Amazon recently. The Federal Police are investigating the very Minister of the Environment, who is a total crook, who is called Ricardo Salles.

I get quite attached to my clothes and there are some items, of particularly nice colours, which become like my trade mark. So you might imagine my sadness when upon putting on my favourite light blue shirt at the weekend Liz said: “that must go to the bin!” I was staggered! Just because of a couple of holes and one small slit my dear shirt was given the sentence of capital punishment and it was only eight years old. But when Liz gets her mind set on “keeping me smart” I have long learnt that it is no good arguing. “I wouldn’t have the courage to put it in the jumble sale”, Liz said. Dear me! My poor shirt has bit the dust and to add insult to injury today I saw Liz using a pale blue dusting cloth. Who can understand women?

Last night’s service was lovely. It is great to be back in church again in person and to lead the service. Pastor Lucena preached on ‘The Compelling Love of Christ’ from 2 Corinthians 5:14. At the end one man expressed his desire to return to following Jesus after a time away from God. Last Sunday there was a decision by a woman to follow the Lord as well. I am not sure how much longer we will be able to hold in person services as the pandemic is getting worse again here.

I have had an excellent Zoom meeting this morning with Pastor Renilson and his wife Getiane from the Matureia church up in the mountains. The meeting was about the Action School there which is going really well.    

Yesterday afternoon’s senior leadership meeting of the work here in northeast Brazil went very well and lasted about 2 hours with all 11 of us taking part. I chaired the meeting. Initially we had a general discussion about the progress of the work of EAB/ACEV and discussed how to handle one particular problem I can’t mention. Regional pastor Lindon Carlos, in the area where the problem is, was commissioned to investigate further and report back to the Board.

Following on from this we interviewed the first candidate for probationary status as a pastor. He was Roberto de Oliveira, known as Betinho, who leads both the Ibiara and Conceição churches in towns about a quarter of an hour apart by car. Betinho is 37 years old. He was the most nervous of the 3 candidates interviewed but nevertheless he did well. He and his wife Maciene are doing a great job in the churches under their responsibility. The leadership team decided to recommend Betinho for probationary status as a pastor in the general assembly to be held next Saturday (29th).

Next to be interviewed (all online via Google Meet) was Leandro Araújo dos Santos, known as Léo, who is aged 32. Léo leads the EAB/ACEV church at Juazeirinho which is exactly half way between Patos and Campina Grande. Léo answered all the questions we asked him with great calm, ability and accuracy. We were all blessed by the clear gift of God on this young man’s life and he too will be recommended for probationary pastoral status at the general assembly of all the ACEV leadership next Saturday.

Finally we interviewed the youngest candidate for pastoral status who was Fabrício Ramalho de Carvalho Junior, known as Fabrício Junior, aged 24 and just recently married. The other two candidates are also married and already have children. Fabrício also answered the questions very well and he too will be recommended for pastoral probationary status next Saturday. Fabrício Junior will be an assistant pastor to Pastor Wostenes in Campina Grande taking responsibility for the youth.

Please pray for these three young ministers of the Gospel and for the general assembly of all our leaders to be also held online next Saturday afternoon. How encouraging it is to see young leaders hearing the call of God and being willing to step forward and say: “Here I am Lord. Send me”. Such young leaders are guarantee that by God’s help the work here in the interior of northeast Brazil will carry on until the Lord’s return. 

I have been preparing for a meeting of the EAB/ACEV senior leadership team which will be held this Saturday afternoon. Us leaders will be interviewing three candidates for probationary status as pastors. The first is Betinho who leads the Ibiara and Conceição churches. The second is Léo who leads the Juazeirinho church. The third is Fabrício Jr. who will be an assistant pastor to pastor Wostenes in Campina Grande. Each interview will probably last about half an hour and the starting time of the meeting will be 7 pm UK time so please do pray for us. We praise God for this new generation of leaders coming through the ranks here. The second and third candidates have already graduated from Bible College. The first is in the middle of his course of theology and will only be ordained after he has graduated. We value your prayers for this meeting.

I have been preparing for this Sunday’s service which we will be at in person again like last week. I will be leading the service again and this week Pastor Lucena will be preaching.

I have finished writing 78 years of EAB/ACEV history so I have just two years to go! I aim to definitely publish the book with the history of EAB/ACEV’s first 80 years’ history this year. I have written in Portuguese from 1938 to 2016 so I’m nearly there!

I have just had a longish meeting with Sacha in her capacity as leader of the Patos Worship team. She is doing an excellent job.

I have some good news today. Our Fireman Romildo, his wife and 3 children, who all have Covid, are all getting much better. PTL! Our Veterinary Surgeon Marcelo Sá is off oxygen and slowly improving from Covid. My journalist friend Marcelo Negreiros has left hospital and is slowly getting over Covid. The latter two Marcelos have had particularly strong versions of Covid. Thank you for praying. 

I finished reading “The Blitz Detective” by Mike Hollow last night. It is a thoroughly enjoyable well researched and well written novel set in east London in 1940.

I have had a Google Meet online meeting with Pastor Renilson and his wife Getiane, from Matureia up in the mountains, this morning to discuss different aspects of our Action School there. It was a very good meeting. They are a lovely couple doing a great work for God.    

EAB’s chairman of the Board of Trustees Roy Dyer is now a grandfather! Congratulations to Roy and family! Welcome to baby Lucy Joy and congratulations to her parents Josh and Kira! The fact that Kira run a half marathon to raise funds for EAB is certainly significant to this happening. If you want to have a beautiful baby girl then run a half marathon for EAB! 😂

Today is our grandson Lucas’s 14th birthday. Happy birthday Lucas! Since Lucas went to England last September he has switched from being a boy to a man with a deep voice! He is doing very well at school which he is enjoying I am glad to say.

We ask you to pray for EAB/ACEV’s Action Schools in this time of extreme Covid pandemic here in Brazil. The schools have long adapted to the new reality and teach online for who has access to internet and teach via written lessons, which are dropped of to the children’s houses, for those who don’t have access to internet. The children’s families receive food parcels from our schools. Our Action Schools give poor children extra help and teaching so as to help them shine at their regular government schools. EAB Action Schools seek to give very poor children a good start in life with special help in primary education.

The Covid pandemic is getting worse again here. The intensive care beds at the Patos General Hospital are 100% full today. Please pray.

The President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro publicly called everyone who self-isolates yesterday “idiots”! This sadly is the aggressive level of insanity which leads, or misleads, this country. It is no wonder that Brazil is in the mess with the Covid pandemic that it is. Whereas most presidents and prime ministers demand self-isolation where possible, wearing of masks and social distancing, our president does and says exactly the opposite!

Yesterday our brother Neneto from our Curral Velho (Old Cow Pen) church was released from hospital in the town of Piancó where he had been for 3 weeks, of which 16 days were in intensive care. He was picked up in a car to take him home and was escorted home to Curral Velho by a cavalcade of motorbikes sounding their horns! There was great jubilation at Neneto’s recovery. I saw the video of the cavalcade and it was quite something. Thank you for praying.

Yesterday Liz and I did a long session of telephone counselling with a person who leads one of the EAB/ACEV churches whose marriage is in serious difficulties. I can’t give names or place, but please pray for this couple. It’s a very complex matter.

A bird researcher from the town of Mossoró in Rio Grande do Norte State has contacted me asking for permission to use some photos of mine of a fascinating bird called a Nyctibius griseus. My photos are going to be used to illustrate a scientific paper about this bird which stays stationary all day on the top of high tree stumps and only flies off to hunt and eat at night.

We have just received the sad news that our dear friend, in England, Jo Dalton passed away yesterday. She was the wife of the ex-chairman of the EAB Board of Trustees Bob Dalton. It was their son Ian Dalton who kindly phoned to let us know, at Bob’s request, and for which we are very grateful. Jo was a lovely Christian woman and medical doctor. She visited the work of EAB here in Brazil with Bob and was very influential with her tremendous faith in the purchase of the EAB/ACEV church building and land in João Pessoa on the coast of Paraiba. We send our deepest sympathy to Bob and family as they come to terms with their sad loss. May God’s Spirit comfort them and may they be blessed as they think back over Jo’s fruitful life.  

Having had our two doses of Coronavac Chinese vaccine our doctor gave us the green light to return, with caution, to in person services in church. The Chinese vaccine is not the best, as even the Chinese manufacturers admit, but it was what was offered to Liz and I so we took it as better than nothing. It was absolutely great to be back in church! I led the service and Rafael preached. It was a lovely service. The folk at church were very happy to have us back so all in all it was a special day yesterday.

Talking about special days, today is the twenty-first twenty-first birthday of our great friend and co-worker in mission Marian Rashleigh. Happy birthday Marian! Hope you are having a great day there in Blighty 4 hours ahead of us.

I had a good talk after church last night with Nurse Liliane, who is a member of our church, married to Claudivan. Liliane works 100% of the time with Covid patients over the past 14 months and has never caught Covid. It is amazing how this virus works. Some don’t get it despite enormous exposure, others get it mildly, others get it severely and others die. It is an amazingly challenging time in which we live! Here in Brazil we are still seeing around 2,000 deaths a day, which is certainly better than the 4,000 mark we had reached, but it still is a very high number. And the President keeps attacking the state governors who combat the pandemic. The man is unhinged and never fit to be president of a nation of over 200 million people.

Please pray for Pastor Francinaldo’s wife, at our Manaíra church, who has just gone down with Covid. Her name is Carla Lécia. 

What a relief it was yesterday to have my haircut after months! It’s what you might call a weight off my shoulders! 👨 I detest my hair long. Our hairdresser Rose came to our house and cut our grandson Arthur’s hair, then did Liz’s before me. That leaves us all nice and ready to lead the service in person tonight in the Patos church. I feel quite excited about it!

EAB’s magazine InTouch edition 95 has now been sent to everyone on our email list digitally, to add to the snailmail version already sent to those on that address list. If you know of anyone who would like to receive a free copy please do let us have their address. This magazine can also be read online on the EAB website at www.eabrazil.org .

An entire family from our Patos church has Covid. The Dad is our Fireman Romildo and his wife Claudia also has it as do their 3 children. Please pray for this family. Please also continue to pray for José and Chiquinha in João Pessoa who both continue in hospital in intensive care. I spoke to Chiquinha’s brother yesterday who is EAB/ACEV’s pastor José Vieira who thanked everyone for their prayers and said they are very gravely ill.

I have been talking to our projects team about all the excellent work done this week teaching women more about profitable cooking and icing cakes. They also got some new market gardens started and set up the start of more chicken runs too. They also distributed more goats in the 4-Legs Project. So praise God – the work presses on!

Louisa is our second eldest grandchild at the ripe old age of twenty one. She is in the final year of studying law at university and doing very well there too. Louisa went to England last September with her parents Philip and Gylmara and with her brothers Lucas and Luis. However she returned to Brazil this January to complete her degree and has been staying up till yesterday between our daughters Lynn and Sacha’s houses. However everyone felt it was the right time now, with our second dose of Covid vaccine taken over 3 weeks ago, for Louisa to move into our house which was always the plan. So we are very happy to have our lovely Louisa with us and her pug dog Apollo who had been staying with our daughter Deborah. Please pray for Louisa. She is part of the 3-person youth leadership team in the Patos church and is also an excellent vocalist in the praise and worship band.

I would like you to keep praying for our veterinary doctor Marcelo who is ill with Covid. He has now been allowed home from hospital because he can afford his own oxygen cylinder which he still needs a lot. He told me yesterday that he still feels absolutely awful and desperately weak. He says he can hardly stand on his own feet. He thanks everyone for praying for him. Thank you for praying for Neneto from Curral Velho also who is now breathing without help from as intubater. 

I have been talking to Sister Nenem who leads our São Vicente do Seridó church. We discussed the situation at this small town where there are shoot-outs of late at night. We decided to switch the Sunday night service to the afternoon for the safety of our church folk. Please pray for this situation.

EAB’s magazine ‘InTouch’ – edition 95 should have reached you by now. If you would like a free copy please do let me know giving me your address. 

Liz and I went to our doctor’s yesterday for a routine checkup for the first time in an awful long time. Our doctor’s name is Felícia. Liz and I are both well thank the Lord. I just need to increase by protein intake and Liz is going to have some vitamin B12 injections but apart from these minor adjustments we are fine. Dr. Felícia also said that now we are over three weeks after our second dose of vaccine we can return to in person services at church as long as we take all take the necessary precautions of social distancing and wearing masks of course. Liz and I are therefore very happy and grateful to God to be able to be going back to church in person as from this Sunday. I will be getting my hair cut tomorrow in preparation for this which will be quite a relief! 😀 I will lead the service on Sunday and my assistant pastor will preach.

Yesterday we had a good rain of 40 mm which is not far short of 2 inches. This takes us up to a total this year of 487 mm. This leaves us far short of what we need for it to be a good year but we hope and pray for some more good rains in May. In João Pessoa on the coast yesterday they had flash flooding with abundant torrential rain there!

Our projects team has been out distributing sheep to poor families in Diamante County. The people benefitted by our 4-Legs Project opted for hair sheep rather that goats in this case. Some prefer sheep as they are somewhat easier to control than goats.

Edition number 95 of EABs bi-annual magazine ‘InTouch’ is in the post and on it’s way to everyone. Our thanks go to Marian Rashleigh for all the work she has put into this edition as she always does. If you are not on our mailing list and would like one or more copies then please do let us know. The 8-page magazine gives a resumé of the work of EAB over the past months.

Yesterday Philip and I conducted the wedding online of Brenda and Victor and all went off beautifully. The couple asked to use the church’s side hall for the occasion so they were there from 9 am for the legal part with the judge, together with Brenda’s sister and mother and our worker Lila. The judge married a whole host of couples online one after another. As our couple was well down the list it meant that our Christian part of the wedding started about half and hour later than the 10 am that was planned. That was no problem. In fact if things are on time in Brazil we think something is wrong! I prayed with them and then Philip read part of 1 Corinthians 13. I then shared a few thoughts from God’s Word with them and then they said their vows and exchanged rings. Following this I declared them husband and wife and they timidly kissed. Then Philip said a few words to them before he said the final prayer and blessing. May the Lord bless Brenda and Victor!

Our Patos church Fireman Romildo has been confirmed with Covid and his symptoms are mild so far. This is day 9. Please continue to pray for Romildo. Please also continue to pray for our Veterinary Doctor Marcelo with Covid in hospital in Campina Grande. We understand that he is out of danger now but still needs oxygen. 

I have long lost count of how many weddings I have conducted over the years but I have never done one online. However a young woman from our Patos church called Brenda is marrying Victor from one of our Campina Grande churches tomorrow on line. At 9 am they go before a judge online and do the legal part and then at 10 am they come to me online to conduct the Christian ceremony. I prepared everything for this yesterday. Philip will also be taking part from the UK as Brenda wants him to take part as Philip was the youth pastor here so there is a nice affinity. Please pray for this online wedding and that God might bless this couple, Victor and Brenda, who will be starting out life together in such turbulent times.

Sunday’s service went off beautifully. Sacha led it so well. Much better than the assistant pastor to be honest. I preached focusing on the Mums on Mother’s Day and it went very well. I had a lot of positive feedback which is always encouraging. A young woman called Dilma also brought a beautiful poem for the mothers.

Last night Liz and I spent hours revising the entire Patos church register which has details of all members, non-members who regularly attend who are Christians and non-members who regularly attend who are not committed Christians yet. The register is divided into families and has everyone’s address, phone number and date of birth. The latter being so that we can congratulate those who had birthdays each week in church. People like this.

Please continue to pray for Neneto from our Curral Velho (Old Cow pen) church. He is the brother of Tica who leads the church there, with her husband Ramos, and he has a serious version of Covid and continues in intensive care at Piancó. He is very ill.  

Today is Mother’s Day in Brazil as it always is on the second Sunday in May. I see that Portugal has switched theirs from December to the first Sunday in May, as countries who are majority Roman Catholic tend to do as they have May as the month of Mary. Anyway I will be preaching in the Mother’s Day service in a few hours’ time and Sacha will be leading. My assistant pastor has gone to be with his mother at Soledade, which is about and hour and a quarter from Patos by car.

We have a fireman in the Patos church called Romildo and he has all the symptoms of Covid, but awaits confirmation, or not, from the test. Please pray for Romildo.

José Renildo, who was an EAB/ACEV pastor at the beach church of Jacumã near João Pessoa, is travelling with his wife Tânia to Portugal to live today. Please pray for their journey and settling in to a different climate, culture and a different version and accent of the Portuguese language. They are going there to live with their daughter but who knows if an EAB/ACEV church might not start up there. I am not saying this is planned but it could happen. Certainly some of our pastors are already praying for it to happen!

The death toll in the police shoot out in a Rio de Janeiro slum has gone up from 25 to 28! The confusion about the number only goes to show the chaos involved. The massacre is being highly criticized here by many although the right wing supports it. Brazil’s vice-president who is an army General said all the victims were “bandits” before they were all even identified! Some Brazilians use the slogan “a good bandit is a dead bandit” and sadly many evangelical Christians say this.

 We seem to be surrounded by death here in Brazil! A 36 year old man is another that has just died from Covid in Patos and thousands are dying everyday here with the government continuing to back pedal on doing anything which helps combat the pandemic.

Then yesterday came the horrific massacre of 24 men in Rio de Janeiro in the Jacarezinho slum/shanty town or favela as its called in Portuguese. The massacre was carried out by 200 highly armed police who sealed off part of the slum and killed 24 men. One policeman was killed too. Many are calling this attack an “execution” raid done by a “death squad”. That this shanty town is in the grip of organized drug crime is a fact, but it doesn’t justify extrajudicial executions. My friend and pastor colleague Antonio Carlos Costa has the headquarters of his work exactly in Jacarezinho and he is horrified by what happened yesterday. The United Nations Human Rights office has strongly criticized this the deadliest raid in Rio de Janeiro’s history. Residents say police killed suspects who wanted to surrender and entered homes without a warrant. Police deny any wrong doing. One man is said to have been executed in the same room as an eight-year-old girl. I have seen a video of the room with pools of blood on the floor. Please pray for Brazil.

Francisco and Leca are the couple who look after the every day things at Green Pastures and they are a lovely couple. Francisco’s grandmother has just died at the age of 102! She was lucid and active to the end. She used to watch soaps on TV every night and she spent time in prayer every night too. She made her own breakfast the day she died. In the evening she was watching TV when she put her hand to her chest and she was gone. What a long life and what a way to go!

Thank you for praying for our Vet Dr. Marcelo Sá who is a member of the Patos church. He is improving from Covid and has come out of intensive care. Please pray for Tica who leads the work at Curral Velho church with her husband Ramos. She has gone down with Covid as has her brother Neneto. She has no symptoms as yet but Neneto is very ill and in intensive care intubated. 

I forgot to mention that our partnership with Tearfund had its 30th anniversary on March 1st. On that day in 1991 I visited Tearfund’s headquarters at Teddington, just near Bushy Park, and had a very fruitful meeting with Jennie Evans who was the coordinator for Latin America. That was the start of this long partnership which still goes on today for the glory of God.

This week I received a new book to read which was written by Mike Hollow and called the Blitz Detective. I have read 4 chapters thus far and it is very good. It is set in East London in World War II. I like Mike’s style of writing. I have known Mike since he came to Brazil back in the 90s with Tearfund to make a video about the work here. 

Talking about publications let me mention that EAB’s bi-annual magazine InTouch edition 95 is at the printers and should be falling on your doormat this month if you are on our mailing list. Please let me know if you would like to join the list.

I have been talking to our leader at Belem called Naldinho about his practical work linked to his Bible College course. He is a very dedicated brother. The work we do training young leaders is of great importance to the future of the work here.

I have been talking again to Pastor Umbirajara, who is the João Pessoa regional leader, about Cleiton who is to take on the leadership of the Jacumã church now that José Renildo is moving to Portugal. I have said goodbye to our brother on the phone.

Please pray for Dr Marcelo from our Patos church who is a Vet. He has now gone into intensive care with Covid.

I have prepared my sermon for next Sunday which is Mother’s Day in Brazil. 

As times goes by we have had had some children named after us around the EAB/ACEV churches. For instance, there’s a little boy at our Belém church who is the son of the leaders who is called John and now there is a baby girl called Liz who was born to a young couple called Tony and Milena in the Patos church. They have now moved to João Pessoa and 2 month old baby Liz was taken ill during last night. Liz received frantic WhatsApp messages from Milena at 2 am telling us that baby Liz is really ill and was taken into hospital so we prayed for her at 2 am. Please pray for baby Liz who has some sort of infection blood tests have shown. 

Yesterday was a very hectic day with lots of pastors on the phone to me sorting out a variety of issues. Pastor Francinaldo at Manaíra told me that 85 year old Silvino is much better from Covid and a stroke and his daughters are going to take him to São Paulo, where they live, to look after him there. I don’t think Silvino will like it in a big dirty city but he doesn’t have much choice.

Another matter that Pastor Francinaldo discussed with me is the possibility of taking on a young man called Fábio Furtado as a new worker in Manaíra County. I agreed to this and this is a particularly interesting case because Fábio was an EAB Action Child at Caroá a long time ago. When he grew up he did a degree in theology at our Princesa Isabel Bible College and he is the worship leader at Caroá. Now we will be taking him on as a worker to help with the church plants at Travessia and Fonseca. Please pray for Fábio.

Yet another matter I discussed with Francinaldo is the building of the church at Travessia in his County. We have decided to go ahead with this by faith this year. We have the land already. The church building will cost about 4,000 pounds and we have 350 pounds to date so please pray with us on this.

 I have just had a long talk to Pastor Maésio and his wife Fia who lead the EAB/ACEV church up in the mountains at Teixeira. They have problems in the church there with a deacon giving a bad testimony linked to pornography and asked me what they should do about it. I advised them to talk to the brother which they have not yet done. The first step must be to listen to the person in question and then go from there. They promised to do that and let me know what happens. Please pray for this matter.

My sermon went well in the service last night despite an initial internet hiccup caused by a mistake that our technical man made. Once that was sorted all went well. It was the communion service and young assistant pastor Rafael got in a bit of a muddle at the beginning forgetting to distribute the emblems, but our Bible College student Mailson discreetly prompted him to get things on track.

José Vieira is one of our pastors on the coast at João Pessoa where EAB/ACEV has a number of churches. He is one of our pastors who has had Covid and recovered. Now he is asking urgent prayer for his sister Chiquinha and her husband José who are both seriously ill in hospital in intensive care. Please pray. 

Today is our granddaughter Amanda’s 6th birthday. She is the daughter of Lynn Amanda and Hutan. She was born very tiny and very premature but praise God she is growing up into a lovely healthy young lady. Please remember our grandchildren in your prayers. May they all follow Jesus Christ is our prayer and may they all be kept healthy in these trying times.

Our 3 daughters are all in Patos and each has 2 children. Our son Philip is in England since last September I think it was. He is there with his wife and sons Lucas and Luis. Their elder sister Louisa, who is 21, is in Brazil.

The rainy season here continues to be weak. This year the first 4 months of 2021 only saw 433 mm at Green Pastures Nature Reserve & Christian Conference Centre whereas the average rainfall in this period over the previous 5 years was 714 mm. 2021 is going to be a tough year in more ways than one. The lake and stream remain bone dry. May is still a month in which we can receive some rain so we hope and pray that this will happen in abundance.

Liz and I have just been to Josinete’s house to wish her a happy birthday in drive through style. Josinete is a very faithful deaconess in the Patos church and is always very willing to serve God and her neighbour. Now Liz is cooking egg, chips and peas for lunch.

Last night we had a nice chat to our eldest daughter Deborah. It is odd with Liz, myself and Deborah all masked and sat far apart, but these are the times we live in. It was lovely to talk and to pray together.

I value your prayers for me tomorrow as it’s my turn to preach in Patos. I will be preaching on the fear of the Lord. 

I spent the whole of yesterday afternoon in an online meeting via Google Meet (similar to Zoom) with leaders of our Action Schools Project. The meeting was to evaluate our schools in the middle of this terrible pandemic. The meeting was very good.

Yesterday Brazil passed the horrific mark of 400,000 Covid deaths and my friend and pastor colleague Antonio Carlos Costa has organized a protest with 400 sacks covered by Brazilian flags on Copacabana beach representing those who have died. The protest focuses on the inept national government response to the pandemic. More people have died from Covid in the first 4 months of this year in Brazil than died in the whole of last year.   

 Liz and I have over the last few days enjoyed eating a small home-made loaf of bread which was made by a neighbour. Bread from the bakeries in Patos is made as rolls so we don’t have loaves of bread normally. The home-made loaf was very nice.

Pastor José Renildo and his wife Tania have been leading the EAB/ACEV church near the beach at Jacumã for some years now, but yesterday he told me that they are moving to Portugal on May the 9th to live near their daughter. Pastor José Renildo has had Covid twice so I think his daughter wants to get her parents out of here whilst the going’s good.

I had a very long talk to Pastor Umbirajara yesterday. He is the regional pastor for João Pessoa and all our churches in the coastal region. One of our topics was a replacement leader for José Renildo at Jacumã. He also told me all about his recovery from Covid and how he had felt pretty rough for some time after leaving hospital, but now he is fine.

Please pray for a member of our Curral Velho church who is the brother of the leader Tica. He has Covid and has been taken to hospital at Piancó. Please also pray for Marcelo Sá who is a Vet from the Patos church who is also in hospital in Campina Grande with Covid.

 I have been talking to Pastor Renilson who leads the EAB/ACEV church up in the mountains at Matureia, which has the highest peak (Pico do Jabre Peak) in our State of Paraiba. He has asked special prayer for a little girl named Alícia, aged 7, who is part of the Matureia church who has been unwell for months but the doctors couldn’t discover what is wrong with her. However an MRI has shown that she has a brain tumour and so she is going to be operated on to remove the tumour. Please pray for Alícia.

I also have been talking to Pastor Nezinho Abílio who leads the Vazante and Barra de Oitis EAB/ACEV churches. He asks prayer for Sister Diana at Barra de Oitis who is most unwell having been operated on for a kidney stone and for the removal of her gall bladder. Please pray for Diana.

At 2 pm yesterday a house in our street was broken into by 2 armed men who kept a woman at gun point whilst they collected money and jewelry. 

Covid deaths in Brazil continue terribly high. Yesterday another 3,120 deaths occured which clearly means we will see the 400,000 deaths mark passed this week! Despite this sad reality President Bolsonaro continues to play Covid down and threatens state governors, who try to get things under control with restrictive measures, by “sending the army in to set the people free from any form of lockdown”!

EAB’s 4-Legs Project has been running for many years now and is in action all the time here. The project seeks to function as an incentive to poor rural folk to rear goats (or sometimes hair sheep which occasionally people prefer). Goats are very hardy creatures who do well in the tough hot and dry conditions of the interior of north-east Brazil. They produce milk which is a great help for the families’ young children. Of course the animals also multiply and produce income for people so that they will eventually have animals to sell. Recently we distributed 4 more goats to very poor people in Cajá de Baixo Community in Flores County in the State of Pernambuco. We also distributed 2 goats at Travessia Community in Manaíra County in the State of Paraíba. Each family also received a sack of mineral salt and medication for eventual wounds which the goats may get out in the thorny bush as well as from barbed wire fencing. The families that received the 6 goats also received a Bible and they were very grateful for all they received. This project is another of our ways of demonstrating in tangible ways to the poor and needy God’s love. Please pray that the recipients might be fed by the milk of the goats and the milk of the Word. 

More people have died with Covid this year in Brazil than died in the whole of last year. The Covid peak here for the second wave has been reached but the levelling off at over 3,000 deaths a day remains horrifically high. Nevertheless our President Bolsonaro continues to play down the pandemic and demands that all the shops, restaurants, bars etc. should be open. I only hope and pray that he will not be re-elected in the October 2022 elections. 

One bright piece of news amidst so much suffering is that the young lady doctor, Dr. Marcília, has finally been released from hospital after having been in intensive care for over a month. She had had Covid twice and was desperately ill, but thanks be to God that she made it out of the darkness. Thank you for praying.

Last night’s service went very well. I led part of the service and our assistant pastor led the rest and also preached. Next Sunday I will preach at what will be the monthly communion service.

This morning food hampers have been distributed to those in special need. One went to Sister Judite who had one of her eyes removed recently owing to some sort of abscess. Quite awful! She seemed a lot brighter this morning thankfully. Bless her heart. Another food parcel went today to Sister Toinha who has been put (I felt like saying dumped) into a new government wardened place for seniors. I feel sorry for her as it has cut her off from friends and fellowship despite her being quite capable of looking after herself. Her son, who is a very aggressive policeman, decided to put his mother into care and there is nothing we can say or do about it.

Our Pastor Chef (please note the pun! i.e. not Master Chef!) João George is the assistant pastor at our Imaculada church up in the mountains. He is a very dedicated man in all he does. He is an Action School teacher and he is one of the most dedicated teachers we have in any school. It’s just how he is! He is also very good at cooking and at teaching cooking and has done excellent work teaching women to cook at Fonseca slave-descendent community in Manaira County. The aim in this project is to in this way teach women to make bread or bake and decorate cakes so that these things generate income for their families. So yesterday he was at another slave-descendent community at Barra de Oitis in Diamante County teaching a new group of women to make bread and it was a great success. It is so good to see extremely poor women treated with respect and recovering their personal dignity through such projects as this one as well as increasing their income. 

The rain situation continues the same at Green Pastures. We had 30 mm of rain the night before last and 9 mm last night so not big rains to fill our lake and stream up. With just a week left in April the situation in serious at Green Pastures. Last night in Patos it rained 88 mm of torrential rain but unfortunately this didn’t fall at Green Pastures. The rain was so hard last night that I had to turn the volume up to the maximum for Liz and I to be able to watch our serial on Netflix so as to relax before going to sleep.

I have been trouble shooting at one of our Action Schools this week. Problems crop up from time to time but the Lord helps us to solve them and our experience helps too.

Thanks to those who have been praying for 85 year old Brother Silvino at Manaira who had Covid and a stroke. Praise God he is now home from hospital and much improved.

The 2 latest toilet/shower units that we have built are now totally finished and their happy owners are using them with great satisfaction. It’s sad to think that these are the first toilets these families have had in their lives. How the other half lives! For the very poor here a toilet is a luxury and a shower as well is a super luxury! However the photo of Francisco de Assis, his wife Maria de Fátima Lucas and their two children shows a family all masked up and looking very serious. (see on Facebook) That’s just how poor folk here are! To get them to smile for a photo is extremely difficult! I understand such people and I realize that’s their normal, but it might be difficult for people overseas to figure out.

I’ve been having a lot of discussions with different EAB/ACEV pastors today which is always good. I especially had talks with the two pastors, Wostenes and Hamilton, of our two churches at Campina Grande where God’s work is pressing ahead well despite all the difficulties of the pandemic. The first church there in the borough of Catolé, where Wostenes is the pastor, is slowly expanding its building to cope with growth. PTL!  The second church which Hamilton leads, is in the borough of Presidente Médici, and has just managed to buy a narrow piece of land next to the church which is being used as a car park. The church has 5 years to pay for the land on the never never. So we praise God for the two churches in Campina Grande which are growing for the glory of God.

I also have been talking to Pastor Nezinho Abílio who leads the two churches at Barra de Oitis and Vazante. What a joy it is to see how that despite all the Covid problems in these villages (as opposed to churches previously mentioned in a city) both churches are progressing well. At Barra de Oitis they have 54 members and at Vazante they have 62. Both these village churches have their own church buildings which are in the process of being finished off whilst being used. So it always is so encouraging seeing people come to Christ whether in towns, cities or villages!

In Patos we have seen another person make a commitment to Jesus. She is a young woman who heard the Gospel from her neighbour Iris who is a member of our church and who was recently appointed as deputy-head teacher of our Patos Action School. We praise God for people who naturally share the Gospel with friends and neighbours and lead them to Christ.

My blood tests a few days back all worked out well with cholesterol and glucose levels etc. all fine. The only item slightly below normal was my potassium so the doctor has told me to eat more bananas and oranges to fix that. That suits me fine.  

This morning Liz and I have had our second dose of the Coronovac Chinese vaccination so this means in a few weeks time we should have a fair level of immunity from Covid-19. We are grateful to God and scientists for this. We are aware that the vaccine gives limited protection but it is better than nothing. From a few weeks time onwards we will aim at getting more back to normal whilst continuing to be cautious, wearing masks, social distancing etc. 

I have been asked what my links are with LST – the London School of Theology, with whom I attended a virtual Research Conference last week. Well – I did a B.A. (Hons) Degree in Theology with LST many moons ago and this I followed with an M.A. in Theology and Religious Studies with Leeds University. I found these studies very stimulating and they were a very great blessing and enrichment to my life and work. I also find it is important to keep being challenged by Christian scholars who think deeply about a variety of Biblical topics and about the way the Christian faith relates to everyday life, science, the poor, the environment, politics etc.

At our Green Pastures Nature Reserve & Christian Conference Centre we see a lot of lizards. We have so far identified 15 species of lizards and the largest of these we are seeing a lot of lately is called Salvator merianae which grows up to 2 metres in length. At Green Pastures we supply water to our neighbours from our well. We have long had a pipe linked to one of our water tanks which has a tap on an outer front fence which means people can come and help themselves to water whenever they need it without having to come inside Green Pastures. It is always a joy to see poor people loading up their carts with water in this way.

Our main service of the week on Sunday night went very well yesterday. Sacha and João Filho led on vocals as Louisa was away in João Pessoa with her maternal grandparents for the weekend and Fábio was at work as he does shifts, which includes Sundays every other week. On instrumentals were Mailson (bass guitar), Tiago (guitar) and Witagiby (drums). Rafael and I shared the leading of the service and Pastor Lucena preached on 2 Kings 5:1-19.

We had another quarter of an inch of rain yesterday at Green Pastures. Unfortunately it’s one of those years where the rain just comes in small portions, in dribs and drabs, and the river bed and lake remain bone dry. This is going to be one of those years where our deep-bore wells will be vital in the drought, as will be our drinking troughs all over the Green Pastures Reserve for the wild life. Dr. Izar Aximoff and I have just written a very good scientific article on the 20 species of mammals registered at Green Pastures. Dr. Aximoff is a PhD in Biology at the Rio de Janeiro State University. I will publish the link to the article once it has received its final touches and is officially published in English.  

The night before last it rained 12 mm at Green Pastures Nature Reserve & Christian Conference Centre and last night it rained 26 mm, so that adds up to just over an inch and a half of rain in two nights. This is good but sadly not enough to accumulate water in the stream or lake and which remain totally dry.

We watched Prince Philip’s funeral service yesterday on the BBC World Service. It certainly was a beautiful sunny day for the event and everything went off impeccably well with typically British precision. What a contrast with how, when we first came here, TV was black and white and the image was awful, but now we could see and hear everything from Windsor Castle as well as you could in the UK. May God comfort the Queen and all the family.

Another of our pastors, José Renildo, who leads the church near the beach of Jacumã near João Pessoa, is recovering from a second bout of Covid-19. Sadly his experiences, rather than giving him a humble sense of gratitude to God, have given him a sense of spiritual pride and he is boasting about how he “has no fear”. He is a military man and a follower of President Bolsonaro. I will say no more but just ask you to pray for us to have wisdom on how to handle this arrogance which is in the hearts of the majority of evangelical Christians here.

I will be leading part of the service tonight in the Patos church and assistant pastor Rafael will be leading the other part. Pastor Lucena (retired Congregational) will be preaching.

Liz and I are due to have our second dose of the Chinese Coronavac Covid vaccine on Tuesday.

I always walk at Green Pastures in boots. I bought the boots in England I think it was 4 years ago. I buy boots in the UK because my feet are bigger that Brazilian shoe shops tend to stock. I wear boots because they protect me from the many thorns in the bush here and they help protect me from possible snake bites. So you can imagine my sadness when my boots developed big holes in the soles! However a Patos cobbler has brilliantly solved the problem and stuck big lumps of heavy duty tires on the bottom of my boots. They are as good as new again! 😁

I was greatly saddened yesterday at the death of my long time friend in João Pessoa, Marilo Costa, who had been in intensive care with Covid for 12 days. We worked together a lot in the late 70s and early 80s evangelizing students with the Christian Inter-Varsity ministry. Please pray for his wife and family.

I was up again at 5 am this morning for the second and final day of the LST Research Conference. The first paper today was by Dr. Grant Mason on Secularization, Modernization and the Local Church from 1919 up to the present day. Then there was a very interesting lecture on Faith and Extraterrestrial Intelligence. The Conference was well worth getting up early for.  

I was up at 5 am this morning and got straight under the shower to wake up! This was because the London School of Theology’s Research Conference, which I am attending, started at 9.30 am (UK time) which is 5.30 am Brazilian time. I ate a bowl of cereal with melon, paw-paw and banana as I listened to the brilliant keynote speaker who was Professor Andrew Steane who lectures Physics at Oxford University. His paper was – “It keeps me seeking: the invitation from Religion, Science and Philosophy”. He was so good that his allotted time just flew by! 😀This was followed by Professor Richard Bell speaking on Hegel’s view of time and this dragged by like a tortoise! 😥 The final speaker today was Tim Chen, who is a Chinese PhD student at LST, who spoke on the Wisdom of Solomon. He did well and this brought to an end the first challenging thought provoking day of the Conference. There’s more tomorrow starting at the same time.

China has admitted, and if China admits it that’s saying a lot, that the Covid Vaccine, called Coronavac from China, is limited in its effectiveness and that they are working on improving it. This is the vaccine Liz and I have had and we didn’t have a choice. We value your prayers. 

It rained hard in Patos last night but once again the rain was minimal at Green Pastures which is a great pity. Some places in Patos yesterday received 100 mm but at Green Pastures, just 12 miles away, we had only 4 mm.    

Ana Carolina is the name of a 19 year old woman who was once a pupil of the EAB Action Primary School which bears the name of our late beloved missionary Pastor Frank Dyer. This young woman has just sent us a lovely testimony of her love and gratitude for our school. She writes: “I have always loved the Pastor Frank Dyer School. I have fond memories of this blessed and happy place which has such competent teachers. Recently people who know me and my love for children and education said to me that now I have finished High School why don’t I train to become a teacher? I thought about this for a few months and then I applied to the university and was accepted! I am now in the first term of my teacher training course and am absolutely loving it. I know I have a long way to go to my graduation but I am already dreaming about whether God would bless me to one day become a teacher at my dear old EAB Action School!”

Last night it rained 21 mm at Green Pastures Nature Reserve and Christian Conference Centre. That is nearly an inch of rain which helps our situation a bit but we need a lot more rain as still the lake and river are bone dry. We need abundant heavy monsoon-like rainfall to fill the lake. Liz and I walked at Green Pastures yesterday and looked at the work the painters are doing painting the wooden playground equipment which hadn’t been painted for 5 years. The painting work is brightening up the swings, slides and see-saws ready for new camps once the pandemic is over. Our playgrounds are made of wood as wood is cooler for the children to play on in the intense heat here. Metal would be unbearable. 

I am very happy to say that our dear Deaconess and Nurse Samara at Ibiara, who had severe depression problems with extreme consequences, is much better. Thank you for your prayers. Local Pastor Betinho tells me that Samara is smiling again and turned up at his house to visit his family rather than the other way round with the pastor visiting “the sick”! And I saw a post this morning on social media from Samara with her and her Aunt happily together. So we praise the Lord!

We were again very disappointed by the lack of rain at Green Pastures last night because whilst in Patos it rained 59 mm it only rained 3 mm at Green Pastures! 😒 You have no idea how sad this is in this semi-arid region where rain is hard to come by.

The Covid pandemic keeps going from bad to worse here with the death toll now past 355,000 and the President continues to play down the problem as he ridicules all who request action. Thankfully our State Governor is doing all he can to control the people so as not make the Covid situation worse than it is, but the President unbelievably does all he can to mess up our Governor’s good work. What is worse is that I am part of a small minority of evangelical Christians who raise a voice of complaint about our President. Even the President’s language is aggressively foul. What a mess! 

Yesterday we had our first little bit of rain this month which is a great concern as this is our last main month for rain in our rainy season. In May we just get the leftovers. So just 10 mm of rain at Green Pastures was better than nothing of course but a disappointment. We keep praying for some big rains still in April.

Next week I will be attending the London School of Theology’s Virtual Research Conference which will discuss if “Science and Faith are at odds?” The Keynote speaker will be Professor Andrew Steane who is a (Christian) lecturer of Physics at Oxford University and I will be up bright and early to listen to him at 5.30 am. I have been reading a paper he wrote which I received as preparatory reading for the Conference. The paper has the title: ‘The Role of Science in the avenues of Understanding and Appreciating Nature’, and it was very good. It is very good to re-charge ones spiritual batteries and be challenged by speakers such at Professor Steane.

I have now concluded writing year 2013 of my book on the history of the work here which will cover our first 80 years from 1938-2018. This means I have five years to go so am nearly there. I hope to publish the book this year. It is in Portuguese for a Brazilian audience. Every chapter (27 written so far) has been checked and corrected by Liz and then by Lynn. We will do a final overall read and check, and add photos, before sending it to the publishers. 

It was wonderful that yesterday afternoon EAB/ACEV Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa finished his spell in hospital with Covid and is now at home. As he left he read part of Psalm 46 to the nurses and sang with them part of the song “Because He lives I can face tomorrow”. Umbirajara’s exit from hospital was quite an event. I spoke to him last night and he was profusely thankful to all who prayed for him.

I received the news flash on my mobile phone this morning from the BBC that Prince Philip had died aged 99. This highlights how much communications have progressed between Britain and the interior of northeastern Brazil! There was a time when the only communication was letters which took months to arrive or you could hold your ear to a short wave radio and sometimes hear the news, as long as it was 3 pm when reception was clearer. Now I received the news at the same time people received it in the UK. My sister Jean sent me a message on WhatsApp to tell me what I already knew!

I’ve got an empty arm this morning (for those who remember Hancock’s Half Hour!) after Liz and I had blood tests done for cholesterol, glucose etc. as our routine bi-annual tests. Our blood was collected at our house by a nurse at 6.15 am. The home collection was in the light of the pandemic.

Amidst all the bad news here in Brazil I am glad to have some good news! I am happy to tell you that yesterday afternoon Antonio, who is the squeeze box (piano accordion) player from our Conceição church, was sent home from hospital and his pastor Betinho picked him up from the Piancó hospital and took him home. Antonio cried as he sent a video message of thanks to everyone that had prayed for him whilst he was being treat for Covid. So we praise God for this victory.

Good news from João Pessoa too is that our Pastor Umbirajara in hospital with Covid may be sent home today. Watch this space!

Nationwide health authorities are warning that at least 1,068 towns and cities are running out of oxygen supplies in their hospitals which are a vital aspect of hospital treatment for people with Covid. Obviously the demand on oxygen is very high owing to the pandemic, but the sad thing is that the government is slow to react. Please pray. 

Tonight is the midweek Bible study continuing in the Epistle to the Philippians.

 Yesterday saw Brazil pass the 4,000 mark in daily Covid deaths for the first time. Sadly Brazil reached a total of 4,211 Covid deaths in 24 hours and two people we knew were part of this total. What is so sad is that our President continues to look the other way, does nothing about it but tells the people “to stop whining” and “get back to work”! He says he’ll never support a lockdown so the death toll just rises non-stop. The first time Brazil reached 2,000 deaths in a day was less than a month ago, so you can see from that how out of control Covid is in Brazil. Total deaths now have passed the 337,000 mark. I am sorry to keep on about such a sad topic but this is the reality we are living here. Please continue to pray.

On a brighter note I can tell you that our Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa is steadily improving from Covid. He is still in hospital but if he keeps improving today he could be sent home tomorrow. I talked to his son now who told me this and thanks everyone for their prayers. 

Our prayer request for rain also persists as sadly the rains have stopped altogether here and we have a dry stream and dry lake at Green Pastures. Liz and I went walking there yesterday and it is sad to see a superficial green coating on the trees but everything is dying underneath. April is our last main month for rain so we are hoping and praying for things to change here.

Our Easter Sunday special service online was really lovely. It was especially nice to have the Christian poetess Zenilda Lua taking part with a poem she wrote about Jesus and the resurrection. She was born in Patos but now lives over 1,600 miles away at São José dos Campos in the State of São Paulo. Sacha led the praise and worship and I preached the Gospel.

I have two items of good news. First of all the deaconess Samara at Ibiara is much better after all her depression and its consequences. Her pastor Betinho reports that Samara is much brighter and positive. The other piece of good news is that our dear Pastor Umbirajara in hospital with Covid in João Pessoa is improving, and there is the possibility of him leaving the hospital by the end of the week as long as he keeps improving the way he has been recently. His viral pneumonia has improved so he needs less oxygen, and his appetite has now returned to normal. Thank you for praying.

We heard some startling news yesterday which got Liz investigating to see what exactly had happened. We heard that Sister Judite who is a senior lady in the Patos church, who takes part in our ‘young at heart’ project, “had lost an eye”! Judite is a quaint woman who used to keep a piglet indoors like anyone else would keep a dog or a cat so we wondered if she had had an accident or did she mean she had lost the sight in an eye with a bad cataract? When we discovered the truth we were horrified. For Judite has had an eye removed by surgery owing to some sort of abscess that had formed in her eye. It sounds outrageously extreme to have surgery to remove the eye but we will never know if it was really necessary. Judite now has an artificial eye and she is very low and depressed with this. Please pray for her.

Our State Governor has decreed that as from Monday, April 5th churches in Paraíba can go back to holding hybrid services as long as masks are worn and social distancing is observed. I wonder if our Governor will live to regret this decision as we are at the height of the Covid storm and deaths are occurring thick and fast. Brazil has now passed the 330,000 deaths mark. The problem is that many churches do not obey the rules of distancing and masks and this is where most of the trouble comes from. I personally would prefer that our church stayed exclusively online for the time being but my hunch is that such a position would not be acceptable to the majority of our members so I will follow the Governor. We value your prayers for a very difficult and trying situation.

Good news is that our son-in-law’s Aunt is out of hospital and fine after Covid. His uncle had already gone home and is fine too. Hutan asked us to thank everyone for their prayers. Please continue to pray for Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa who continues in hospital with Covid. He is a real cause for concern.   

We are very concerned about Pastor Umbirajara who has Covid and who was admitted to hospital last night in João Pessoa. Pastor Umbirajara is the fourth of our pastors who has had Covid after Wostenes, Jânio and José Vieira (all recovered) but Umbirajara is the first to be admitted to hospital. Umbirajara is EAB/ACEV’s senior pastor in João Pessoa and the first secretary of our senior national leadership team. His wife Conceição also has Covid but she has no symptoms. Their daughter Sara is a young doctor so her father has not lacked medical attention. Please pray for Umbirajara.

Please continue to pray too for the piano accordion player Antonio from our Conceição church, who has been transferred to the bigger and better hospital at Piancó. Pastor Betinho tells me that he is more comfortable at Piancó. 

We are looking forward to our Easter Sunday service tomorrow night at 6:30 pm (10:30 pm UK time) which I will be leading. I will also be preaching. It will be nice to also have taking part the poetess Zenilda Lua with a poem about the resurrection. 

Please pray for Antonio from our Conceição church who plays the piano accordion there. Antonio is in hospital there with Covid-19 and is going to be transferred to a bigger hospital in another town, when a space for him becomes available, because he is pretty ill. The big problem in Brazil at the moment is to be able to get a place in a hospital if you need it, as the public health system is simply overwhelmed by Covid. Despite this horrific situation, with over 60,000 Covid deaths in March alone, President Bolsonaro still verbally attacks all restrictive measures taken by the State Governors.

I have been talking to our leaders of our second church in the borough of Maia in Princesa Isabel. They are called Jair and Silvânia. Sadly Silvânia’s aunt, who lived next door to them but was not part of our church, has committed suicide. Jair and Silvânia are naturally feeling very sad and are low. Please pray for them.

I have had a meeting with one of our projects team leaders, Pastor Lindon Carlos, and we discussed possible Chicken Run and Market Garden projects to be started at the Belém (Bethlehem) village in Tavares County where we have a flourishing little church plant. He is getting over the flu, which he feared could have been Covid, but he had the test and gratefully it was negative.

 We have received photos from our Action Schools at Flores, Caroá and Matureia showing the joy of poor children receiving food hampers for their families together with hygiene kits and lessons for the children to do at home in the light of the pandemic.

I have been talking to Pastor Betinho at Ibiara about the deaconess Samara there who attempted suicide. I am glad to report that she is much better and steadily improving. She has asked forgiveness for what she did but said everything had got on top of her so much. She now asks for the pastor and others from the church to come and have little services at her home and she sings with them. She is being given support from a psychiatrist too so we have much to thank God for.

Our EAB/ACEV pastor Umbirajara, who has Covid in João Pessoa, still stands in need of our prayers. He continues with a high temperature, has some discomfort with breathing and has viral pneumonia affecting 25% of his lungs.

We have had a little more rain with 5 mm on Monday and 8 mm on Tuesday so we are now up to a total of 307 mm this year. Please pray for some big heavy rains for us at Green Pastures.

Brazil finds itself amidst great political tension because President Bolsonaro sacked the Minister of Defense who is an army General. He sacked him because he rightly refused to attack the High Court over a recent decision which the president didn’t like. The general also refused to attack lockdown which the crazy president is also against. So once Bolsonaro sacked the Minister of Defense the chiefs of the army, navy and airforce all resigned in solidarity with the Minister of Defense. This news is the first item of news on the BBC World News today. Please pray for Brazil.

Last night’s online service in Patos went off very well despite an early problem with the transmission caused by the web camera jamming. This meant that we could hear Sacha singing but the visual part was frozen. I had to keep talking whilst the problem was fixed by our technical man Ray. It was funny because people were asking me to sing whilst we waited! Anyway once this problem was sorted the service went off fine without a hitch.

I noticed during the service that amongst the many people watching was the Poetess Zenilda Lua who lives at São José dos Campos in the State of São Paulo which is over 1,600 miles away from Patos. She is a lovely Christian lady with whom I have a partnership. I provide a nature photograph from Green Pastures and Zenilda writes a poem to go with it and our work is published from time to time in a Brazilian Christian magazine. So towards the end of the service last night I invited Zenilda to write and say a poem on Easter Sunday which she has agreed to do. This will be a nice change and I am sure it will be a real blessing to hear Zenilda’s resurrection poem.

We have had some rain over the weekend at Green Pastures. On Saturday night it rained 30 mm and on Sunday night it rained 14 mm so this takes us up to 294 mm this year. This means we have about 700 mm to go! Please keep praying.

This morning we have helped another extremely poor family who were going hungry at Passagem, which is a village about 20 miles from Patos where we have a little church. The situation was so desperate that we gave them 2 food hampers plus a whole lot of fresh fruit and vegetables.    

 This week we built another toilet/shower unit at the Barra de Oitis Village in Diamante County. This time it was built in the back garden of Katiana Lucas Ferreira’s house where she lives with her husband and two sons. The nice thing was the fact that her husband has just got back from the interior of the State of São Paulo where he had had to go to find work picking oranges. He got back to the nice surprise of a toilet/shower unit being built at his house. It is quite a revolution because it’s the first time this family has had a toilet or shower in their lives.

Please pray for EAB/ACEV pastor Umbirajara who is the senior pastor at our first João Pessoa church. His illness with Covid is worse with his blood oxygen level down to 90. He is coughing a lot and will have a CT scan of the chest tomorrow. 

I have spoken to Pastor Francinaldo at Manaíra this morning who told me that 85 year old Brother Silvino is home from hospital a lot better than he was. Thank you for praying.

I am all ready to lead our main service of the week tonight at 6.30 pm. As the clocks have been put forward in the UK it may lower our UK audience in the light of a 10.30 pm start! Sacha will be doing the praise and worship and our assistant pastor Rafael will preach. I will be preaching next week which will be Easter Sunday. 

 Liz and I have just had an online meeting with the Patos Action School’s headteacher Gerlânia which lasted one and a quarter hours. It was an excellent meeting. As I said some months back Gerlânia had told us she felt it was time for her to move on to different work and we were sad because she is so good. What we agreed today was that we will try and put in place to help Gerlânia a deputy headteacher so as to ease the load. We have a suitable person from our church in mind called Iris and we will now approach her to see if she would like the job. In this way we hope that Gerlânia will stay with us, but if she doesn’t we will have someone properly trained to do the job. Please pray about this matter which is very important.

Yesterday afternoon we went to Green Pastures for a walk, and to check things over, but we ended up not walking as it started to rain and rained 14 mm taking our total this year to 250 mm. It has rained again today but I don’t know how much.

I laughed yesterday because the British press was making quite a lot of song and dance because a number of the very large bird called the Greater Rhea were circulating in Hertfordshire. These birds are native to Brazil so I agree that they shouldn’t be in England but they are harmless birds who run away from human beings. We had a pair of the Greater Rhea at Green Pastures for over a year until they moved on elsewhere.

Please pray for our Pastor Umbirajara in João Pessoa who today is on day 6 of Covid and he has a high temperature. 

 Our eldest daughter Deborah had her birthday yesterday so Liz cooked her lunch for her and her sons and we took it to them. Whereas we would have had a meal together in normal times we had to take it to her house yesterday duly masked!

It looked good for rain yesterday with lovely dark clouds, but sadly again it just promised rain which didn’t fall. I was talking to Valdemar this morning at Caroá and there they have had 425 mm of rain, whereas we have only had 236 mm at Green Pastures! Difficult times.

Dr. Izar Aximoff is a post-PhD biologist in Rio de Janeiro and he has contacted me proposing that he write a scientific article on the Green Pasture mammals which I have accepted. We have now started work together on this. It will be produced in both Portuguese and English so I’ll let you know when it’s available.

Last night’s Bible Study in the book of Philippians had just over 20 taking part including Philip from the UK. We use Google Meet for such meetings and all went very well.